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This lively work of dystopian fiction lends an interesting spin to topics such as gender politics and police states — all by focusing on a colony of bees.

A palpable buzzing noise fills our heads as we turn the final page of playwright Laline Paull's compelling debut, The Bees. Built on the foundations of a limitless imagination and flawless research, this new slice of dystopian fiction will no doubt leave the reader hankering for more.

Nestled deep within the orchards of an overgrown garden, sits an old wooden hive. Deep within it lives our narrator Flora 717, a worker bee from the sanitation division of her colony. Large, dark and incredibly hairy she is looked upon as ugly, insignificant and even deformed, her destiny: to scrub the honeycomb walls and dispose of the dead. Unlike her fellow sanitation workers, Flora can not only speak but is physically and mentally more powerful than her companions.

Noticing her special gifts, the sacred priestesses that run the hive on behalf of the Queen, offer Flora a way out of the drudgery, ...

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